unreliable and faithless. Their Bin in this respect, though declal'ed to be against God, involved afortiori similar conduct in relation to their fellow-men. III. C,oNFIRMATIONB OF IsRAEL's GUILT. Two places are specified as in~tances, and their inbRbitants sinii;led out 118 specimens of the wickedness of the times-Gilead on the east and Shechem on the west of Jordan. If Gileud be a city-Ramoth-gilead, Jl('rllllps-a city of refuge l\nd a Levitical city, the sin of its inhabitants was something ~bocking. ,vhen men, who by profession should be an e>tample and pattern to others, descend to practices directly opposed to that profession, and degrade themselves by criminal actions of the worst and basest kind, religion is evil spoken of, a stumbling- hlock is cast in the way of the weak, the Master himself is stabbed in the house of his professed friends. The people of this highly favoured place had set themselves to work iniquity, and that of no ordinary kind; the blood of murdered innocence clave to their hands. Shechem was even worse in this respect. In this other city of refuge the privilege of asylum was profaned. Either guilty persons were admitted and protected for a bribe, when they should have been delivered up to de.ath; or, in addition to thus screening the guilty, those who had committed homicide unwittingly, but who were too poor to offer bribes, were ruthlessly given up to the blood-avenger; or, worst of all and vilest of all, the priests who had got settled in the place formed themselves into robber-gangs or common banditti t.o rob, and in case of resistance murder, the travellers who were so luckless as to journey that way, or from a bloodthirsty spirit of revenge they waylaid and assassinated the objects of their displeasure. In one way or other lilood was defiling the land and crying to He.aven for vengeance. Long before a bloody deed had been done in this very place, when Simeon and Levi in cruel wrathfulness put the defenceless Shechemites to the sword; history in a still worse form now repeated itself. IV. CoMMUl\'ITY IN CRIME. The proverbial expression of" Like priest, like people," was fully verified in the case before us. When priests perpetrated such atrocities, what could be expected from the populace? When religious teachers distinguished them- selves as ringleaders in wickedness, what could be hoped for among the less privileged of the population? There was, in fact, a community in crime. In the house of Israel, or main body of the people in the northern kingdom, there was wickedness so horrible as to make one shudder or the hair stand on end. However men might attempt concealment, God's eye detected and discovered their horrid iniquity, while his justice denounced vengeance against it. Ephraim is again foremost and first in the present iniquity, as previously in the idolatrous calf-worship and original revolt. Their whoredom, whether literal or figurative, exercised a contaminating effect on the rest of the ten tribes. How baneful the effects of evil influence! How great the responsi- bility connected with the exercise of influence! Judah also, from whom better was to be expected, with the ancient sanctuary among them and a purer ritual, had been seduced to sin; the example and influence of their brethren in the north had, no doubt, helped their depravation, evil communications corrupting good manners. Be this as it may they had sown the wind and must in consequence reap the whirlwind. As they had so;,,n and what they had sown, they must by-and-by reap. The general judgment is likened to harvest; so also are special judgments. (For the time specified, see Exposi- tion.) The Judabites who had been made captives by Israel had been set at liberty through the interposition of the prophet Oded (2 Chron. xxviii. 8-15). God had spared them then but set them a harvest at another time; as it has been remarked, " Preserva- tions from' present judgments, if a good use be not made of them, are but reservations for greater judgments."
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vers. 1-3.-Repentance and saving kn~wledge. We ~iew these verses as ~losely connected with the last verse of the precedrng chapter. 'lhere the Lord hM said that Ephraim and Judah, when they shall have been well punished for their apostasy, will at length return to him. Here, accordingly, he anticipates what they shall say to one another when they do so. "In their affliction they will seek me early, saying, Come, and let us return unto the Lord." 'l'his prediction, doubtles~, has already once and OH, VI, 1-11,] THE BOOK OF HOSEA. 177